What does David Lammy’s announcement mean for the race for Mayor?

David Lammy has announced he intends to run for London Mayor today. He is the second candidate to declare they are seeking the Labour nomination (Christian Wolmar announced in Autumn 2012), and the first MP to come forward with their intentions. So what does this mean for the race?

Well, Lammy is likely to come in for some stick for starting his bid now. Many see an early declaration as a selfish distraction from the general election campaign, and LabourList editor Mark Ferguson has already warned against the temptation. In fact, it is understood that Lammy was likely to announce the news at Labour conference in a few weeks time, but decided to bump it forward.

While this may annoy some (Labour London Assembly Member Val Shawcross was one of the more interesting names to voice their unhappiness on Twitter), it makes a lot of sense for the Tottenham MP to get going sooner rather than later. Of the other presumed Parliamentarian candidates (Abbott, Adonis, Khan, Jowell), Lammy is the one with least name recognition. Tessa Jowell and Lord Adonis have both had reasonably high profile ministerial careers, with links to very London policy areas (the Olympics and transport, respectively), while Sadiq Khan has been fairly successfully working to improve his profile for a couple of years now, and has the London post in the Shadow Cabinet. Diane Abbott, meanwhile, is Diane Abbott – everyone knows her.

Being recognised has played a big part in every London Mayoral election so far. If David Lammy is really serious about getting selected, then he has a lot of work to do to catch up with other potential candidates (especially as, as Stephen Bush has pointed out, he will not naturally command the support of any Labour faction). Starting after May next year could well be too late to make up the difference. Ed Miliband will presumably use Conference to launch the 2015 campaign in earnest: declaring his intentions there would have run the risk of being overlooked in the news cycle, and launching after would have left him more vulnerable to attacks that he wasn’t campaigning. From this perspective, it had to be before.

Doing it today, he gives himself a chance of raising his profile. And by launching a report on housing, he lays down a marker on one of the biggest issues affecting Londoners.

And he is not that without his supporters. Shadow Health minister Jamie Reed sent his best wishes, while former MP Tony McNulty makes an interesting point: “Decency dictates that anyone offering themselves up as a Labour PPC in May 2015 should declare any interest in the mayoralty.”

The race has now officially begun. If any candidates decide to declare before Christmas, then expect the entire field to commit their names before election day next year. There is little stopping any of them: Jowell is standing down, so does not have the barrier of standing next year; Adonis is a peer, so he doesn’t have a constituency to worry about either; Khan still needs to get his name out there more; and Diane Abbott could do with building a policy platform to show she is a serious contender.